“Good police work there, partner,” Joe said, grinning at her, his eyes showing the respect he felt for Midnight.
“Yeah, thank Rick. If he hadn’t seen noticed Tasha’s car … we could have been chasing our tails for a while.” She looked over at Rick’s motionless form then, her eyes filling with tears again.
Joe and Randy stayed with Midnight. Three hours later Rick’s doctor came in and saw the group in their varied states of waiting. Joe was sitting in a chair, leaning his head against the wall his eyes on Midnight. Randy sat on the floor in front of him, between his legs, her head rested on his knee, her arm wrapped around his leg with Joe stroking her hair. Midnight was sitting in a chair next to Randy, closer to the bed, her right hand holding Rick’s as she stared down at him. Her left hand by her side was clenched in Randy’s other hand.
Human support chain, was the thought that came to the doctor’s mind. He knew that his colleague had done some minor surgery on Sinclair, and that he should be resting. The doctor had been ready to tell Joe that he should leave, but when he saw the four of them, he couldn’t do it. No matter what his twelve years of medical training said, he felt that a cocoon of love and support around his patient may be the only thing to bring him out of the coma his body had slipped into.
The story of what had happened had spread through the hospital like wildfire and the doctor felt very sorry for these four people, who were, after all, the good guys. The doctor found himself praying, which he hadn’t done much of over his forty-two years, for the recovery of this patient. The doctor quietly checked Rick’s chart, disappointed to see no change in his condition. His blood pressure was still dangerously low, and he had yet to regain consciousness. The doctor left as quietly as he had entered, saddened that he couldn’t give them any encouraging news.
Chapter 5
Rick remained unconscious for four days. Midnight was almost frantic with worry. She hadn’t eaten or slept the entire time she had been at the hospital. Joe and Randy had stayed with her, alternating between going to get coffee or food. Joe hadn’t wanted to eat either, but Randy knew that he needed to for his own recovery, so she had forced him to. She knew he should be resting too, but she understood that Rick was his best friend and Joe needed to be there for both Rick and for Midnight. Randy felt that she needed to be there too. Rick had come for them, he wasn’t a police officer, yet he had put his life on the line to help rescue them, and he’d been shot doing it.
It was twilight outside on their fourth day at the hospital. The light in the room was dimming. Randy was sitting in a chair and Joe was sitting on the floor in front of her. Her hands were massaging his neck and uninjured shoulder. She could feel the tension in them and she knew it wasn’t good for him. Joe’s elbow rested on her knee, the back of his index finger rubbed back and forth across his lips as he stared off into space. His injured arm was held gingerly in front of him, slightly bent. Midnight had just stood to stretch when she thought she saw some movement from Rick. She watched him closely, and saw that his mouth was moving. He was grimacing, as if trying to come out of the coma was too much of an effort.
“Joe!” she said, then motioning to him.
Then she leaned over, her lips only inches from Rick’s ear.
“Rick? Come on, babe, you can do this … come back to me.” Her eyes watched his face, he was definitely hearing her voice.
She watched as he opened his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, then his eyes moved to look at her.
She touched his cheek. “Hi there,” she said softly, her eyes gazing down into his.
He didn’t say anything at first then a slow smile spread over his face.
“Hi …” he said quietly.
“Hey man,” Joe said, coming to stand behind Midnight.
Rick looked at Joe and grinned weakly.
“How ya feelin’?” Joe asked.
Rick looked at Joe for a long moment, then he looked at Midnight, then down, as if trying to assess how he felt before answering.
“Chest … hurts,” he said finally.
Midnight smiled at him. “That’s because you tried to stop a forty five slug with it, babe.”
“Oh,” Rick replied simply, grinning at her again.
He closed his eyes, swallowed, then opened them again. “Did … we … win?” he asked his words halting.
“Of course we won!” Joe said, with mock indignation.
Randy had run to get the doctor and came in with him then. The doctor looked Rick over, checking his blood pressure, checking his reflexes, then nodded approvingly.
“He’s out of the woods, it’s all downhill from here.” He smiled at them then, as they collectively sighed with relief.
Then he looked down at his patient. “Now that you’re awake,” he said seriously but with a grin, “do you think you can make your friend, his girlfriend, and your girlfriend get some sleep and eat something? Or else I’m going to have three more patients soon.”
Rick’s eyes went to his friends, as if seeing them for the first time. He now saw how tired they all looked, even though they were all smiling at him. Midnight looked the worst; he could tell she hadn’t been eating or sleeping.
“Babe …” he said, touching Midnight’s hand.
“Don’t start on me, Debenshire,” she said. “I’ll rest now that I know you’re okay, but I’m not leaving this hospital till you do.”
When he turned to Joe and Randy for support, Joe held his hands up in a surrendering gesture.
“Yeah, yeah,” Joe said, laughing, “we’ll go.” Then he smiled somberly at Rick. “Glad you’re okay, man.”
“Me too,” Rick said then, returning Joe’s smile.
“Randy … take this guy home … and make him rest,” Rick told her.
Randy nodded. “I will.”
She leaned down, kissing Rick on the cheek. “Glad to have you back,” she said, then smiling down at him.
“Glad to be here,” Rick replied smiling back at her.
Joe and Randy left and Midnight sat down in the chair again, taking his hand in hers. They were silent, each lost in their own thoughts. After a while, he fell asleep, and Midnight curled up under her FORS jacket and went to sleep too.
Midnight spent the next week at the hospital with Rick. She slept off and on, the hospital staff had finally brought a cot in for her, so she could actually lie down when she did sleep. Rick continued to get better. The doctor released him a week and four days after he had been shot. The hospital was astounded at his recovery, but the doctor felt that it was the love and support of his friends that had done it. All of the members of FORS had been to see him at least once, and in the case of Spider, Tammy, Dibbins, Tiny, and Kana, they had been to see him every day. Joe and Randy had also been at the hospital a lot. Randy had made Joe stay home for the first couple of days, so he could regain some of his strength. After that, he and Randy had alternated between the office and the hospital.
Joe found out that Tasha hooked up with Robbins a few months after they’d broken up. An associate of Robbins had been supplying her with the drugs she had been taking when she and Joe had argued. When she had needed another fix she had tracked her source down, and when she had told him about what an asshole Joe Sinclair was and how she’d like to see him dead, the source had put her in touch with Robbins. Robbins had seen the potential for her kind, and had hooked up with her. Tasha had supplied the Scorpions with all of the information she had on Joe and Midnight.
She’d given him Midnight’s address. He’d failed to get it previously when he’d followed her home one night. That’s when he’d had the encounter with Mike Harlow. Luck had been on Midnight’s side that night, but nothing could divert the discontent of ex-lover. Fortunately, Tasha did not have the addresses for the rest of FORS, since none of them were law enforcement personnel officially. Midnight had not filed the listing of their confidential addresses with the DMV. Tasha had no access to that information. Although she had mentioned to Midnight that
having that information on file might prove useful in an emergency situation, Midnight had declined. That one decision had kept both Midnight and Joe alive in situations that would have meant their instant death normally. Robbins had become obsessed with killing all of the members of FORS, to exterminate them, as he had said. He’d wanted the information, and refusing to supply it had kept Midnight and Joe alive long enough to be rescued. Ultimately, Tasha’s obsession with making Joe pay for not loving her back had gotten her killed, as had Robbins’ obsession with killing FORS.
It bothered Joe that Tasha had become so crazed about loving him. It scared him. He had never considered himself attractive or a good catch. But Tasha had been obsessed. When her apartment had been searched, the police had found a diary, and since Tasha was dead and no charges had been filed against Randy for her death, the police gave it to Joe. He was the main subject of it. The chief of police himself had exonerated Randy of any wrongdoing. He felt the same as every other police officer in the department that she had been defending a police officer, Joe.
The night before Rick was to be released from the hospital, Joe and Randy were at home in bed. Joe was holding her close. After she had fallen asleep, Joe had gotten up, and gone into living room. When she stirred two hours later, Randy realized that Joe wasn’t in bed. She got up, and padded down the hallway, noting the light on in the living room. She found him sitting on the couch, a bottle of tequila next to him on the end table, reading Tasha’s diary. He didn’t notice her come in. She watched him; his face was drawn and unhappy, as he read Tasha’s words. He took another swig from the bottle next and saw Randy standing there. He smiled at her grimly.
Holding up Tasha’s diary he said, “What a great guy I am.” His voice was self-depreciating, and depressed.
Randy kneeled in front of him, her eyes on his. “You are a great guy, Joe. I don’t know what Tasha wrote, but she wasn’t all there, and you shouldn’t take anything she said in there to heart.” Her voice was strong and sure, she knew she was right about this.
“She says,” Joe said, reading from one of the pages, “I love him, why can’t he see that? I don’t know what else to give him. I thought my heart and soul was enough, what else could he want? He yelled at me again today, but I know he’s just frustrated, that Midnight keeps him wound pretty tight, always needing him, always calling him. I wish she’d just get shot or something and die, then he’d be mine like he should be. I took more of those pills today, but I needed them. I can’t leave Joe alone that way, the pills keep me calm, they keep me serene. I think Joe needs someone serene in his life with all the craziness he deals with at work. He needs me. I just have to be right for him, that’s all … these pills make me right … most of the time.” He looked up at Randy then, the look in his eyes miserable. “She was taking the pills to be ‘right’ for me …” he said quietly.
“Joe,” Randy said, touching his cheek, “you can’t think that you should have known why she was doing that, you can’t blame yourself. What Tasha did was her decision. She was crazy, there’s no way around that. You were just the object of her obsession, that doesn’t mean you’re to blame …” She waited to see if he’d listen to what she was saying.
After a few long moments, Joe nodded. “I know, you’re right, it’s just weird you know?”
“Yeah, it is,” Randy answered, taking the book from his hands. She crawled up into his lap. They wrapped their arms around each other. “I love you, Joseph Michael Sinclair.”
He kissed her. “And I love you Randissi Curtis.”
Randy pursed her lips, her eyes sparkling excitedly. “Randissi Sinclair … hmmm …” Then she smiled. “I like it.”
“You better,” he said, smiling down at her.
They kissed again and Joe eventually, gathered her in his arms and carried her back to bed, leaving Tasha’s diary sitting on the coffee table. They made love for the first time since the incident with Robbins. The next morning Randy took Tasha’s diary and threw it away, not wanting Joe to read anymore. She knew that Tasha had been partially insane and she didn’t want Joe feeling guilty over her lunatic rantings. Joe didn’t say anything about its disappearance He was glad it was gone … he didn’t want to read anymore.
****
When Rick was released from the hospital, Midnight took him to her house. The doctor had cautioned her that he was not to overexert himself. Midnight had given Rick a pointed look and he knew she intended to enforce that edict. She set him up in her bed and sat down next to him.
“Well, Mr. Debenshire, you managed to scare the hell out of me,” she said, her voice sounding accusing, but she was still smiling.
“Sorry, love,” he said sincerely.
“Rick …” she said looking down at the bedspread and industriously picking at invisible lint on it.
“Yeah?” he replied, not sure what to make of her change in mood.
“Do you still … you know …” She didn’t look up at him, she just shrugged.
“Do I still what?”
“You know … love me?” She said the words as if they were taboo.
He reached out then, touching her under the chin, and bringing her eyes up to meet his. “Yes, I still love you … why?” he asked, with a lopsided grin starting on his face.
“I just wondered, because you haven’t really said it … lately, I mean …” Her voice trailed off as she shrugged helplessly again, avoiding his gaze.
He stroked her cheek. “Baby, I haven’t said it, because I knew it bothered you, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t feel it. I love you, Midnight, that’s not going to change …” He was worried, he wondered if she was trying to get around to telling him she didn’t want to see him anymore.
But that would be in complete contrast to her actions of the last week and a half. A small light of hope started in his heart then.
“Babe, what is it?” he asked, seeing her struggling with her emotions.
Still not looking at him, she started rubbing the palm of her hand with the thumb of her opposite hand. She often did it when she was agitated.
“I just … well, when you were in the hospital, when you didn’t wake up … I guess … I did a lot of thinking. I was so afraid you wouldn’t wake up, and then I couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t say …” Tears started in her eyes.
Rick was about to say something but when she looked at him, he caught his breath at the look in her eyes, and he knew even before she said the words.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t get to tell you that I love you, Rick.”
Rick almost couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. It took him a few long seconds to let the words sink in. Suddenly, he was happier than he’d ever been in his life, but he was damned if he could think of anything to say. He pulled her to him and hugged her close.
“Night, I didn’t even want to dream it …” he said, his voice wondrously happy.
Midnight smiled against his chest then.
“More like a nightmare …” she said laughing, and he laughed with her.
“Not hardly.”
He held her, feeling like the whole world was right. He couldn’t believe that she loved him. He thought about what it had taken, and he decided he’d get shot all over again, if that’s what it took.
Midnight was relieved that her attitude about his feelings hadn’t put him off and that he’d changed his mind. She always thought that there was one person for everyone, but she’d also assumed that when she met her soulmate, she’d know it right off the bat. She and Rick had spent so much time pushing and pulling away that she’d decided he couldn’t be ‘Mr. Right.’
While she’d been sitting in the hospital praying that he’d be okay, she’d looked back at all that they’d been through. Rick had been the one man she couldn’t ignore, or dismiss from her thoughts. Her heart had been his from the moment she’d met him, she was just sure that her head had been the one fighting it. That and her independent spirit that wasn’t ready to be tamed. But Rick didn’t want to tam
e her, he loved her for who she was. That’s what was amazing about him.
“Thank you,” she said as she lay against him, her face against his chest.
“For what?”
“For loving all of me,” she said, curling her lips in self-disgust, “even the stupid, stubborn parts.”
“Well, I do love that about you too,” Rick said, a smile playing at his lips. He touched his finger to her lips. “No conditions, babe,” he told her softly. “I just love you.”
Midnight drew in a deep breath, tears misting her eyes as she nodded. “No conditions,” she repeated.
****
Two weeks later, Joe and Randy left for England. They planned to get married there in three weeks’ time. Rick and Midnight took them to the airport.
When their flight was called, Midnight gave Randy’s shoulder a nudge. “Now don’t do all the shopping before I get there, we have to go out together and spend some of Joe’s money,” she said, grinning at the younger girl. Randy laughed, holding her arms out to Midnight and they hugged. Joe and Rick shook hands, and then Joe and Midnight turned to each other.
She looked up at him, grinning, her eyes already shining with tears.
“Don’t do that, dammit!” Joe said, smiling at her. “I’ll see you in two weeks.”
“I know, I know,” Midnight said, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.
Joe gave Rick a stern look. “Keep an eye on her, huh?”
Rick put his arm around Midnight, pulling her close to him and kissing the top of her head, “I will, and we’ll see you in England in two weeks.” Joe nodded. Midnight moved out of Rick’s arms and into Joe’s. Joe hugged her close then his head bowed down to hers.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“For what?” she replied, whispering too.
Empires Fall (MidKnight Blue Book 2) Page 11
